India is one of the most incredible places on earth. With its amazingly diverse culture and history, deep spiritual dimension, social richness, as well as extraordinary landscapes, it forms a (sub) continent in its own right. India is growing and changing at a phenomenal pace, yet maintains great economic and infrastructural disparities. For example, medical facilities range from non-existent in rural areas to world-class in some cities and still only 60% of homes have toilets, whilst Bihar State authorities have unveiled a model of the world's largest Hindu temple... Similarly, the very latest machinery and IT skills may be used in some construction projects, whereby most workers do without mechanization on construction sites. Around 16% of the nation's working population depends on construction for its livelihood.

Additionally, increasingly extreme weather conditions are affecting India’s climate, which is leading to regular droughts and floods on unprecedented scale. In this context, Unit 20 will explore notions of the extreme, a phenomenon implicit to our times. Not only India, but also the world by and large is becoming more and more extreme and overcrowded, leading to unparalleled contrasts, scales and complexity, especially in what concerns our beliefs, habits and technological capabilities. The unit is interested in exploring the extreme geometric (form), material (perception), social (reality) and aesthetic (beauty) dimensions of architecture.

Liminal - Relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process - Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold

"Interspace"
is a discussion panel on architecture in a data society. The curators
of the Estonian pavilion have invited eight architects and theorists
whose architectural agenda complements their approach, to present their
interpretation of the social and spatial consequences of a data-society
according to their specificity. The short lectures about the different
aspects of architecture in a data society will be followed by a round
table discussion on the contraries and concordances of their stances.
The aim of the discussion panel is to provide a comprehensive
understanding of the matters concerning architecture in such a societal
condition where data has become the main currency and being online is a
way of participating in society.

prof. Roemer van Toorn - speaker; architecture theorist; theory and
communication professor at the Umeå School of Architecture Ülar Mark - speaker; architect; commissioner of the Estonian pavilion Interspace
Walter Nicolino - speaker; architect; supervisor at the
architecture department of the University of Ferrara and MIT Senseable
City Lab prof. Toomas Tammis - speaker; architect; dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts prof. Mark Foster Gage - speaker; architect; assistant dean and tenured professor at the Yale School of Architecture
prof. Marjan Colletti PhD - speaker; architect; head of the
Institute of Experimental Architecture at Innsbruck University and
director of computing at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL
prof. Mario Carpo PhD - speaker; architecture theorist; architectural
theory professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL
prof. Mart Kalm PhD - speaker; architecture theorist; vice rector of the
Estonian Academy of Arts; member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences;
member of DOCOMOMO

All the participants have been contributing
to the collection of essays on the digital and the public named
“Interspace” - the official catalogue of the Estonian pavilion, edited
by the curators Johanna Jõekalda, Johan Tali and Siim Tuksam.